A BLUE plaque marking the heritage of Red House in Gomersal could be installed on the Grade II*-listed building.

Built in the 1660s, Red House was run as a museum from 1970 due to its association with the Taylor family and Charlotte Bronte.

It was closed down in 2016 due to budget cuts and is currently empty.

The building’s owner Kirklees Council lodged plans a year ago to convert the house into holiday accommodation and a venue for small wedding ceremonies, although the application remains undecided.

Now the Spen Valley Civic Society has applied for listed building consent to honour Mary Taylor, a radical feminist and friend of Charlotte Bronte.

In its application, the Civic Society details how Mary was born at Red House in 1817 into a family of prosperous textile merchants. She was educated at Roe Head School in Mirfield where she met Charlotte Bronte.

Erica Amende, from the Civic Society said they supported The Red House as an important site of historical textile production, home of the Taylor family and connection to Charlotte Bronte.

She said: “We feel Mary’s achievements have not been recognised. We’ve wanted to put up a plaque to Mary Taylor for some time and are pleased that Kirklees Council is supporting us. The plaque will be manufactured locally and we hope to be unveiling it before summer 2023.”

She added: “As a pioneering feminist and champion of women’s rights, Mary challenged the restrictions on middle-class women’s lives. She wrote a novel and many articles for periodicals; she worked in Europe as a teacher; travelled widely; and emigrated to New Zealand and ran a business there. Mary’s lifelong friendship with Charlotte Bronte was crucial to Charlotte’s success.”

The heritage statement adds: “Mary deserves to be honoured because aside from her friendship with Charlotte Brontë, she was a trailblazer and radical feminist. She refused to accept the constraints of 19th-century middle-class females."

She later returned to her hometown, where she lived at Gomersal Lodge on Spen Lane until her death in 1893. Her grave is in St Mary’s churchyard in Gomersal.

The Civic Society add that while Mary Taylor is significant nationally, she is not celebrated locally, and a blue plaque on the gable wall facing the main road will “inform all passers-by about Kirklees’ very own feminist pioneer.”

The plaque itself would be fixed into mortar, with no drilling into any brickwork required.

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